McGregor Family
Margaret Erskine McGregor was the great-great grandmother of Alex Fenton. She was between 1758-1761 in Scotland to John Erskine and an unknown mother (haven't found her name yet).
Around 1801, she married Donald McDonald and they moved from Deeside to Durris, Kincardinshire, Scotland. She appears to have lived in Durris the remainder of her life although some records show the family having property in Aberdeenshire.
According to records, she had 11 children: John, Donald, James (he and his wife Elspet Wright were Alex Fenton's great-grandparents), Jane, Barbara, Marjory, Catherine, Elizabeth, Gregor, William and Mary.
Margaret died 03 Sep 1850 and was buried in Durris Kirkyard, Stonehaven, in Kincardinshire, Scotland. Her tombstone includes the surname McGregor and this is explained in the following account from Isabel Labour's extensive research notes and those from researcher Margaret Moore:
There can be no doubt that Margaret Erskine was really a McGregor, as she described herself on the tombstone at Durris, following the old Scottish custom by which the widow uses her maiden name on such occasions. By 1838 it was quite safe for her to resume the proscribed name, which her forbears had been forbidden to use since the sixteenth century. In those days the McGregors, who were a dispossessed and scattered clan, had long been at loggerheads with alien landlords and became more and more difficult to control. Eventually they were on the run and at war with the authorities. The last and worst stroke was in 1603 when they beat the King’s men to pieces at the Slaughter of Glenfruin. James VI at once ordered that this “unhappy and detestable race” must be “extirpat and ruttit out”. Under penalty of death, all men of the name of McGregor had to take another surname, and death was also the penalty if more than four met together or if any were found with any weapon but a pointless knife for cutting meat. A number of these unfortunates found their way to Deeside and, settling there on the lands of the Earl of Mar, took his family name of Erskine, and it is possible to follow their fortunes through the records of land transfers in the Registry Offices (see the original research
notes in Appendix Four - Figs. A4.01-A4.04). There are however dangers of confusion in cases where the three parties in the Scottish system of land tenure (Superior, Landlord and Tenant) all have the same surname, with a limited range of Christian names, and all have rights to transfer.
However, the following story seems fairly clear, and in the last three generations is certain. Among those McGregors who came to Deeside after Glenfruin was one John Erskine or more probably his father, with enough money to take over the small estate of Sleach in the wild country at the head of Glengairn on the north side of the river Dee, which included land in Wester Micras1 more or less opposite to what are now the Royal Estates of Balmoral. There they stayed for two hundred years, selling parts of the land from time to time during that long
period.
The original size of the Sleach and Wester Micras appendage seems to have been more that nine oxgates (an oxgate is 13 acres), of which by 1801 only three and a half were left. Wester Micras with Easter Micras stretched along the river bank from below Ballater to the neighbourhood of Crathie Church, and there are records dated 1643 and 1650 that John Erskine, “portioner of Wester Micras”, sold or mortgaged four oxgates of his land at that time. The heir to this John Erskine was Duncan Erskine who took over four oxgates of land in Wester Micras in 1660. He had a brother, Donald Erskine, who settled in Castleton of Braemar (a part of the township of Braemar) and married Elspeth Gordon and is probably the man referred to in 1664 as “Duncan McGregor now in Castelltoune of Marr”. Donald did not hold his lands long and later in 1660 he resigned them to his nephew, John Erskine, Duncan’s son, who is referred to, in a document of 16 February 1667, as “alias Macgregor, Portioner of Wester Micras”.
In 1670 a curious transaction took place when John Erskine made over the four oxgates of land to Robert McHardy, Portioner of Crathienard, who had in 1665 married his daughter Elizabeth. This is apparently where Auchallater came into the family in place of the
relinquished land at Wester Micras, because we find John Erskine’s son Donald, probably jointly with his brother Grigor, taking over two oxgates of land at Auchallater in August 1662.
The estate of Achallater (to use the nineteenth century spelling) seems to have consisted of four oxgates, always let in two portions. For the best part of two hundred years from the early part of the seventeenth century until 1777, one portion was in the hands of a family named Grewar, members of a sept of Clan Macgregor, who might well also have been part of the flotsam from Glenfruin. They were certainly there before 1632, when “John Grewar and Isobel Farquharson his wife and Donald Grewar their second son” appear in the records as tenants of the Earl of Mar. It is the other portion that was in the hands of Donald Erskine in 1662 and we do not know who was there before him. We do know however that sooner or later and before 1696, the property was vested jointly in Donald and his brother “Grigor Erskine alias McGregor”.
In the meantime, the land at Wester Micras had come back to the family. The McHardys appear to have held it only for a very short time and by 1675 it was in the hands of Thomas Erskine “alias McGregor” of Rinabrouch (also in Glangairn), and he seems to have transferred it back (as one McGregor to another) to its former holders. Anyhow, in 1696 John Erskine was again “of Wester Micras”. There is also a statement (1696) that Donald and Grigor Erskine took over the whole of Achallater, the Grewars becoming their tenants, but if this was ever a fact, it was evidently undone at a later date, because the Erskine successors are never shown to have more than two oxgates there.
That was the amount taken over by Grigor’s heir, Alexander Erskine, in 1726 and also by the next heir, John Erskine in 1754. He in turn was succeeded, at a date we do not know, by Duncan Erskine “of Achallater and Micras," and finally we have Duncan’s eldest son John Erskine, “portioner of Achallater”, who is first mentioned in 1782 and who is as frequently referred to as John McGregor as John Erskine. The penal statutes against the MacGregors were lifted in 1775. His Achallater portion had however shrunk to one oxgate, half its former area having been transferred at an unknown date to the Grewars, whose portion was now three-quarters.
In 1782 John Erskine paid £10.17.9d. in rent for Wester Micras and £6.13.4d. for one quarter of Achallater, while the rent of the Grewar’ portion was £20. In 1782 we also find a record that “John McGregor, portioner of Achallater (among others), still hung back, probably expecting better terms from Invercauld by corresponding privately”. This is probably related to the statement that in 1784 he entered into an agreement with Farquharson of Invercauld for rights in the woods at Achallater and Micras. Apparently the family did not live at Achallater, because in a book written in 1794 by the Rev. Charles McHardy, Minister of Crathie, we read that “John Erskine, portioner of Achallater, did not reside within the parish”. This could mean either that he was across the river at Sleach (it is unlikely that there was accommodation in this wild country) or with his daughter and her family at Auchnagui Mill (although this latter is also said to have been in the parish of Crathie).
John Erskine appears to have died in 1799. He had two daughters but apparently no son - certainly none survived him. The elder daughter was the Margaret Erskine who married Donald McDonald of Auchnagui Mill; the younger, Marjory, married James Gruer, portioner of East Craig, Forfar (Angus), the latest member of the Grewar family, who had left Achallater for Angus in 1768, nine years before the rest of the family sold their interests and presumably followed him. He and his wife had both died by 1817, leaving two daughters, Ann and Janet Gruer.
In 1801 Margaret and Marjory jointly took over the oxgate of Achallater and three and a half oxgates of Wester Micras and also “part of Sliach” as “the heirs of Duncan Erskine, Portioner of Auchalater, their grandfather”. But in August 1817 “Margaret Erskine, spouse of Donald McDonald in Mains of Durris, and Ann and Janet Grewar, children of deceased Marjory Erskine and James Grewar” sold the oxgate of Achallater to Catherine Farquharson of Invercauld, and about the same time Margaret sold “parts of Wester Micras” to the same. And there, in the estate of Farquharson of Invercauld, the lands remain to this day. With their sale, all connection of our family with the Braemar neighbourhood was severed. (Note: There appears to be no truth whatever in family legends that some property there was retained).
Around 1801, she married Donald McDonald and they moved from Deeside to Durris, Kincardinshire, Scotland. She appears to have lived in Durris the remainder of her life although some records show the family having property in Aberdeenshire.
According to records, she had 11 children: John, Donald, James (he and his wife Elspet Wright were Alex Fenton's great-grandparents), Jane, Barbara, Marjory, Catherine, Elizabeth, Gregor, William and Mary.
Margaret died 03 Sep 1850 and was buried in Durris Kirkyard, Stonehaven, in Kincardinshire, Scotland. Her tombstone includes the surname McGregor and this is explained in the following account from Isabel Labour's extensive research notes and those from researcher Margaret Moore:
There can be no doubt that Margaret Erskine was really a McGregor, as she described herself on the tombstone at Durris, following the old Scottish custom by which the widow uses her maiden name on such occasions. By 1838 it was quite safe for her to resume the proscribed name, which her forbears had been forbidden to use since the sixteenth century. In those days the McGregors, who were a dispossessed and scattered clan, had long been at loggerheads with alien landlords and became more and more difficult to control. Eventually they were on the run and at war with the authorities. The last and worst stroke was in 1603 when they beat the King’s men to pieces at the Slaughter of Glenfruin. James VI at once ordered that this “unhappy and detestable race” must be “extirpat and ruttit out”. Under penalty of death, all men of the name of McGregor had to take another surname, and death was also the penalty if more than four met together or if any were found with any weapon but a pointless knife for cutting meat. A number of these unfortunates found their way to Deeside and, settling there on the lands of the Earl of Mar, took his family name of Erskine, and it is possible to follow their fortunes through the records of land transfers in the Registry Offices (see the original research
notes in Appendix Four - Figs. A4.01-A4.04). There are however dangers of confusion in cases where the three parties in the Scottish system of land tenure (Superior, Landlord and Tenant) all have the same surname, with a limited range of Christian names, and all have rights to transfer.
However, the following story seems fairly clear, and in the last three generations is certain. Among those McGregors who came to Deeside after Glenfruin was one John Erskine or more probably his father, with enough money to take over the small estate of Sleach in the wild country at the head of Glengairn on the north side of the river Dee, which included land in Wester Micras1 more or less opposite to what are now the Royal Estates of Balmoral. There they stayed for two hundred years, selling parts of the land from time to time during that long
period.
The original size of the Sleach and Wester Micras appendage seems to have been more that nine oxgates (an oxgate is 13 acres), of which by 1801 only three and a half were left. Wester Micras with Easter Micras stretched along the river bank from below Ballater to the neighbourhood of Crathie Church, and there are records dated 1643 and 1650 that John Erskine, “portioner of Wester Micras”, sold or mortgaged four oxgates of his land at that time. The heir to this John Erskine was Duncan Erskine who took over four oxgates of land in Wester Micras in 1660. He had a brother, Donald Erskine, who settled in Castleton of Braemar (a part of the township of Braemar) and married Elspeth Gordon and is probably the man referred to in 1664 as “Duncan McGregor now in Castelltoune of Marr”. Donald did not hold his lands long and later in 1660 he resigned them to his nephew, John Erskine, Duncan’s son, who is referred to, in a document of 16 February 1667, as “alias Macgregor, Portioner of Wester Micras”.
In 1670 a curious transaction took place when John Erskine made over the four oxgates of land to Robert McHardy, Portioner of Crathienard, who had in 1665 married his daughter Elizabeth. This is apparently where Auchallater came into the family in place of the
relinquished land at Wester Micras, because we find John Erskine’s son Donald, probably jointly with his brother Grigor, taking over two oxgates of land at Auchallater in August 1662.
The estate of Achallater (to use the nineteenth century spelling) seems to have consisted of four oxgates, always let in two portions. For the best part of two hundred years from the early part of the seventeenth century until 1777, one portion was in the hands of a family named Grewar, members of a sept of Clan Macgregor, who might well also have been part of the flotsam from Glenfruin. They were certainly there before 1632, when “John Grewar and Isobel Farquharson his wife and Donald Grewar their second son” appear in the records as tenants of the Earl of Mar. It is the other portion that was in the hands of Donald Erskine in 1662 and we do not know who was there before him. We do know however that sooner or later and before 1696, the property was vested jointly in Donald and his brother “Grigor Erskine alias McGregor”.
In the meantime, the land at Wester Micras had come back to the family. The McHardys appear to have held it only for a very short time and by 1675 it was in the hands of Thomas Erskine “alias McGregor” of Rinabrouch (also in Glangairn), and he seems to have transferred it back (as one McGregor to another) to its former holders. Anyhow, in 1696 John Erskine was again “of Wester Micras”. There is also a statement (1696) that Donald and Grigor Erskine took over the whole of Achallater, the Grewars becoming their tenants, but if this was ever a fact, it was evidently undone at a later date, because the Erskine successors are never shown to have more than two oxgates there.
That was the amount taken over by Grigor’s heir, Alexander Erskine, in 1726 and also by the next heir, John Erskine in 1754. He in turn was succeeded, at a date we do not know, by Duncan Erskine “of Achallater and Micras," and finally we have Duncan’s eldest son John Erskine, “portioner of Achallater”, who is first mentioned in 1782 and who is as frequently referred to as John McGregor as John Erskine. The penal statutes against the MacGregors were lifted in 1775. His Achallater portion had however shrunk to one oxgate, half its former area having been transferred at an unknown date to the Grewars, whose portion was now three-quarters.
In 1782 John Erskine paid £10.17.9d. in rent for Wester Micras and £6.13.4d. for one quarter of Achallater, while the rent of the Grewar’ portion was £20. In 1782 we also find a record that “John McGregor, portioner of Achallater (among others), still hung back, probably expecting better terms from Invercauld by corresponding privately”. This is probably related to the statement that in 1784 he entered into an agreement with Farquharson of Invercauld for rights in the woods at Achallater and Micras. Apparently the family did not live at Achallater, because in a book written in 1794 by the Rev. Charles McHardy, Minister of Crathie, we read that “John Erskine, portioner of Achallater, did not reside within the parish”. This could mean either that he was across the river at Sleach (it is unlikely that there was accommodation in this wild country) or with his daughter and her family at Auchnagui Mill (although this latter is also said to have been in the parish of Crathie).
John Erskine appears to have died in 1799. He had two daughters but apparently no son - certainly none survived him. The elder daughter was the Margaret Erskine who married Donald McDonald of Auchnagui Mill; the younger, Marjory, married James Gruer, portioner of East Craig, Forfar (Angus), the latest member of the Grewar family, who had left Achallater for Angus in 1768, nine years before the rest of the family sold their interests and presumably followed him. He and his wife had both died by 1817, leaving two daughters, Ann and Janet Gruer.
In 1801 Margaret and Marjory jointly took over the oxgate of Achallater and three and a half oxgates of Wester Micras and also “part of Sliach” as “the heirs of Duncan Erskine, Portioner of Auchalater, their grandfather”. But in August 1817 “Margaret Erskine, spouse of Donald McDonald in Mains of Durris, and Ann and Janet Grewar, children of deceased Marjory Erskine and James Grewar” sold the oxgate of Achallater to Catherine Farquharson of Invercauld, and about the same time Margaret sold “parts of Wester Micras” to the same. And there, in the estate of Farquharson of Invercauld, the lands remain to this day. With their sale, all connection of our family with the Braemar neighbourhood was severed. (Note: There appears to be no truth whatever in family legends that some property there was retained).